By Naeisha Rose
As a part of its “Hate Has No Business Here” campaign the Sutphin Boulevard Business Improvement District will hold its first ever Harvest Festival on Sept. 23.
Sutphin Boulevard from Hillside Avenue to Jamaica Avenue will be shut down from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the multicultural street fair, according to Glenn Greenidge, the executive director of the BID.
“The purpose of the event is a continuation of our campaign,” Greenidge said. “It’s the highlighting of the diversity of the community, the culture, the fashion and being inclusive of all those different cultures.”
The event will embrace the Caribbean, Southeast Asian, Asian, Hispanic and African-American communities in southeast Queens.
There will be a health presentation and free health clinics sponsored by Health First, Fidelis and state Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) for seniors, the BID director said. There will be a watering station and healthy snacks at the health stations.
Jamaica Reads will give out free books to kids, and there will be a fun zone where children can receive balloons, jump around in a bouncy house and get their faces painted.
The festival will include a martial arts exhibition, a poetry slam, a local marching band, songs and dance from a Bengali troupe, and African attire for the local Strike A Pose youth modeling agency in Jamaica to wear.
There will be food from all around the world, such as Bajan, Ecuadorian, Colombian, and Southern cuisine.
Greenidge is also working on getting a big name artist to perform at the event.
“We’ve got quite a few communities that will make this diverse, and we are reaching out to other communities to make this even more diverse than we envisioned,” he said.
Reach reporter Naeisha Rose by e-mail at nrose
